Wednesday, April 24, 2013

In a stunning display of uncritical journalism yesterday, the Topeka Capital Journal reported that the Dallas cop who was supposed to protect Lee Harvey Oswald gave a speech at Washburn University where he insisted that Oswald acted alone. "Retired Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle told a standing-room-only crowd at Washburn University that Oswald killed Kennedy because he wanted to be famous." This raises many troubling questions: 1) They really have universities in Kansas? 2) Does anyone teach history at these universities? 3) Who would pay 92-year-old Jim Leavelle, who failed at the only important task he ever had in his life, to travel all the way to Kansas to spread his preposterous falsehoods? 4) What sort of real college students/journalists would let him get away with it? Well, as Dorothy said, we're not in Kansas anymore, Jim, and it's time to disspell your lies. According to the Capital Journal, Leavelle believes no shots missed the limousine. He said, "...the first shot struck Kennedy, the second shot struck Texas Gov. John Connally, sitting in front of Kennedy, and the third hit Kennedy." This would certainly be news to bystander James Tague who was struck in the face by a piece of pavement dislodged by a shot that completely missed the limousine. Either there was a second gunman (which means conspiracy) or there were four shots fired by Oswald (physically impossible given the timeframe indicated by the Zapruder film). However, the unthinking Kansans apparently swallowed Leavelle's whopper whole. Leavelle went on to say that "...the president didn't bear any entry wounds to the front of his body." Apparently Jim considers himself an expert on forensic anantomy too. Too bad the Dallas doctors did not agree with him. At a press conference immediately following the assassination, Dr. Malcolm Perry stated three times that the President had been shot from the front. He noted an entry wound at the base of the throat and an exit wound at the back of the head. Truth 2, Jim 0. Leavelle also claimed that "three tramps arrested a few blocks from the Kennedy shooting were just tramps travelling through Dallas." No mention of the fact that two of the tramps were CIA killers Charles Rogers and Charles V. Harrelson. And no mention of the fact that the "policemen" who made the "arrest" let an interloper come between them and their "prisoners." The interloper was positively indentified as Edward Lansdale, Air Force general and CIA officer. Strike three, Jim is out. If it weren't so appalling, Jim's appearance at some backwater school in Kansas would be amusing. But all critical thinkers and all who treasure historical truth cannot sit idly by and let people like Leavelle get away with their outlandish lies. Leavelle is particularly galling because he failed to protect Oswald. He let Ruby walk right up and shoot him. You've all seen the pictures of that murder...Leavelle is the one on Oswald's right, wearing a white suit and a Stetson hat. He merely stares passively as the most important prisoner of the 20th century is gunned down. Now Jim dresses in the same stupid hillbilly hat he wore on Nov. 24, 1963, as a sort of perverse celebrity traveling from hick town to hick town, getting paid for being historically incompetent. The most lamentable part is, had JFK's life not been taken by a sophisticated, diabolical, massive intelligence plot, we would never have to be subjected to rubes like Leavelle pissing on history and profiting from our dead president's demise. Being from Texas, and having been a detective in the Dallas police department (where membership in the John Birch Society or the KKK was a prerequisite for promotion), I'm sure ol' Jim despised President Kennedy.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Last week FOX blowhard Tucker Carlson bemoaned the "moocher class" in America, those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder who have been left behind by corporate America. They have been downsized, outsourced, laid off, and left to fend for themselves. They are unemployed, homeless, and barely able to make ends meet. They are collecting meager unemployment checks, barely enough to let them starve to death. But Tucker thinks they are moochers, sucking at the teat of capitalism. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a hole in his chest where his heart should be, Tucker is oblivious to the fact that this is how capitalism works. There must be many at the bottom (Carlson's moochers) so that the few at the top can thrive. Tucker should be grateful for the dregs of society, for it is on their backs that Tucker's class built their great fortune. Not everyone can be a king of industry, and what few kings there are need hordes of peons to do the dirty work. The lowly construction workers who built the Carlson family mansion, and who are now out of work because Tucker's class stole all their money in stock swindles and investment banking scams, make up the moocher class. Underpaid teachers, who have been laid off due to Tucker's political party's massive education cuts, taught little Tucker how to read and write so that he can now make a fortune spewing hate on FOX News. They are now moochers. The nannies who fed little Tucker his milk cannot afford health care and want some help from the government. The limo drivers who drove little Tucker to his country club don't want their Social Security cut. The servants who prepared little Tucker's foie gras need disability just to make ends meet. All this must infuriate Tucker because people are out there getting money that Tucker can't get his own hands on. And Tucker and his ilk WANT IT ALL. That's how they were raised--greedy, selfish, and completely unconcerned with the problems and struggles of others. They have no social conscience, and they will do anything to advance their own wealth, even to the detriment of everyone else. This, by the way, is capitalism's credo. A few rich people are meant to control everything: the means and methods of production and distribution, and the government by which the laws are made. That is what Tucker does not understand. The huge number of people at the bottom of the rung make it possible for the small number of people at the top of the rung to have everything. He should be thankful for the huddled masses' obsequiousness and servitude, and willingly provide them with the small scraps that fall off his table. For that is all they want. Take that away from them and they will have no choice but to rise up in revolution just to survive. Tucker and his class should take heed of what French aristocrats and Russian czars failed to learn: that starving the lower classes will endanger the existence of those at the top. Give them a loaf of bread; let them have their unemployment checks; don't cut their Medicare benefits. After all, these small morsels won't make a dent in Tucker's fortune. He can just hide a few more trust funds in the Caymans or Switzerland. He can lay off another chauffeur. Or he can cut back to two yachts and three summer homes. Small price to pay to keep the system in place. And the system is what keeps Tucker rich and the rest of us not rich. The last thing Tucker wants, whether he is aware of it or not, is a true democracy, whereby genuine social reform and class justice is implemented. The really smart billionaires understand this. Having everyone share in the pie would be the plutocrats' worst nightmare come true. The huddled masses having a genuine say in who runs the government is a real threat to the established oligarchy. The wealthy must maintain their freedom to buy, sell, and corrupt all that is good, so that their entrenched power remains entrenched. So, Tucker, a word to the wise: Shut your pampered, entitled, whiny trap before you piss off those beneath you and force them to rise up and show you what a bitch democracy can really be.